How To Select a Strong Trademark
Welcome to the March 2024 issue of Sterne Kessler’s MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss the IPR Center’s efforts to stop global IP theft and address counterfeiting on both home and foreign turf; a recent TTAB...more
The process to apply for a federal trademark registration is a separate, and more involved examination process, than registering a business name with a state’s Secretary of State. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...more
How appropriate that the first-ever Supreme Court case to consider whether trademarks used on the internet can be registered should also be the first in which oral argument was conducted remotely. The issue in this historic...more
In a precedential decision earlier this month, the TTAB found that a disclaimer of a term is required as to all services in a Class if it is descriptive as to any services in that Class. This decision appears to contravene...more
The Lanham Act (“Act”) makes it clear that generic terms cannot be registered as trademarks. But can an online business create a protectable trademark by adding a generic top-level domain (e.g., “.com”) to an otherwise...more
On Monday, May 4, 2020, for the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments through a telephone conference call, allowing the attorneys to present arguments while complying with shelter-in-place...more
On Monday, we listened in real time to the livestreamed Supreme Court oral arguments in the trademark registration case United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V. Because of COVID-19, the arguments were...more
On May 4, 2020, the United States Supreme Court heard its first ever telephonic oral argument in its history. The case, styled United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com, B.V., addressed the issue of whether the...more
The Federal Circuit in In re JC Hospitality LLC recently affirmed the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s refusal to register the service mark THE JOINT for a venue offering...more
The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari on a petition filed by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) seeking to overturn a district court decision in favor of Booking.com. The PTO argues that the mark is...more
Breaking News! What happened? The United States Supreme Court recently announced that it has granted certiorari in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., a case about whether the addition of...more
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the USPTO’s writ of certiorari to review traveling website company Booking.com’s trademark application for “booking.com”. The TMCA previously covered developments in this case here....more
In denying a doll maker’s motion to dismiss a mom’s opposition to the registration of the trademark RAPUNZEL, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has relaxed the already liberal standard for what constitutes a “real...more
Rapunzel potentially was released from the trademark monopoly tower, not by her hair, but by trademark opposer and law professor Rebecca Curtin....more
In This Issue - Gender Diversity in Patenting: Current Landscape and Recommendations - The gender gap in patenting is a current challenge that companies face. While this issue seems pervasive, companies and lawyers can...more
In a recent (non-precedential) decision , the TTAB refused to register the mark MEAT CANDY as being merely descriptive of Applicant's restaurant services. To anyone who is not a meat connoisseur, a 2(e)(1) refusal seems to be...more